Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 11 May 2022.
Well, thanks very much, and I'm very aware of the incredible pressure, in particular, that patients are seeing in our emergency departments. We are clearly in a situation where those pressures are boiling over at some points, and one of the things that I've been doing is making impromptu visits to some of our accident and emergency departments just to see for myself the pressure that they're under. I've already been to visit the Heath, Withybush and Morriston, where I was able to speak to people on the front line—so, not getting a filtered view of what's going on. And I think what is clear to me is that there is a massive increase in demand. And if you just look at what has happened in the Grange, we've seen a 14 per cent increase in daily attendance compared to March. That's just this month. So, that is a significant increase. So, obviously, when we're still in a situation where, let's face it, the Office for National Statistics figures are telling us that one in 25 people have still got COVID and are suffering from it, that affects the staff that are working in those emergency departments. So, that explains to some extent why the pressures is so great—because we are still living with COVID. But I can assure you that we do have plans in place. We have urgent plans, we have a six-priority-point plan, and I'm very happy to send you a copy of that if you'd like to see it, where we set out and make sure that people have an understanding that what we're talking about here is a whole-system approach that we need to address. And we will be discussing the planned care issue later on this afternoon, and obviously you're welcome to listen in on that debate.